Erin gazed with grim satisfaction at the body of his captor that had fused into the cabin walls. With her delicate features and her arms pinned on either side of her like wings in flight, she could almost be mistaken for an angel, or at least a fallen one. As the fire in his veins receded, so too did the pain, and he started to laugh as shock and elation coursed through his body. I won? I won!?
He started to sit up with a jubilant shout, which quickly turned into a yelp of pain as the ropes still fastened around his wrists and ankles constricted. Crap.
“Dannu, you still there?” He searched the darkness around him for the soldier who’d broken free just before the qas̆pa had returned, but only silence greeted him. “Dannu?”
“He’s gone,” a raspy, high-pitched voice answered, before descending into a fit of coughing.
Erin squinted into the darkness suspiciously. “Who are you?”
“A woman from Akkaru," she rasped. "Have you seen my husband? We came here together.”
The image of the man roasted on the spit filled his mind again, and Erin tasted bile. “I’m afraid the qas̆pa...well, she killed him,” he admitted slowly, not wanting to tell the woman that her husband had been spit like a roast pig.
Her wails filled the room, gut-wrenching cries that eventually simmered down into mere whimpering sobs. Erin let her mourn at first, not wanting to disturb her grief, but the ropes were digging into him too tightly to ignore forever. He called out for Dannu again, and the woman snapped.
"I told you, he's gone."
“What do you mean, he’s gone?" he demanded. "Did he run away? His eyes turned to the door which remained firmly shut. He hadn’t noticed the soldier escaping during the battle, but he supposed he’d been in too much pain to truly notice. And here I thought he seemed like a nice guy.
“He died,” the voice replied quietly.
“The qas̆pa killed him?” Erin’s joy in his victory faded as he realized the soldier hadn’t made it.
But the woman shook her head. “No, mage. I think, uh..." she hesitated slightly. "I think your spell may have killed him.” She lifted up her arms, her hands tied together just like his, and pointed to where the qas̆pa was now fused with the wall. “He’s right there.”
As he searched the spot where the villager was pointing, Erin finally saw it - a face partially consumed by the wood, a face not belonging to the qas̆pa. For the second time that day he wretched, rocking back and forth as he realized what had happened. I freaking killed him.
He nearly hyperventilated, his breath coming so fast and shallow that his lungs screamed for hair, but something had hardened in him that day. With a strength he didn’t know he possessed, Erin pushed the guilt down. I’ll find a way to honor him, to make it right, but for now…we have to live. Calming himself, he found the woman’s face in the darkness. “Can you feel on the floor around you? There should be a knife somewhere over there. If you can find it, you can free both of us.”
Shuffling her hands and feet delicately, the woman cried out in pain as the blade nicked her hand, but then she set to work. A few shallow cuts later, her bonds fell off. She stood up stiffly and with, the knife clutched in her hand, she stared at him for a long moment. Then, she turned away and headed toward the door.
“What the hell?! Are you abandoning me?” he cried out hoarsely. "Cut me free!"
The woman paused with her back to him. “I’m sorry, mage, but my child…she’s been out there for two days. I have to find her. Once I do, I’ll come back for you.”
“Is it a little girl,” he asked. “A child in a blue dress?”
The villager spun around, hope flooding her face. “You found her?”
“We found her on patrol. It’s why we came looking for you.” He lifted his bound hands and, trying to ignore how annoyed he was with her, plastered a winning smile on his face. “Tell you what, cut me free and I can take you to her.”
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The gnawing pit of worry in Jasper’s stomach had only intensified as he cut through the woods. He hadn’t spent a ton of time with his fellow earthling, but he’d found him a likable enough - if slightly whiney - dude. But he’d also feared that the man lacked the stomach to hack it in the brutal world of Corsythia. So, when Erin had volunteered to look for the girl’s parents, he’d been pleased by his initiative. That was, of course, before he realized that the qas̆pa might be a bit more dangerous than a hillbilly moonshiner. Poor guy doesn’t even have a class and I sent him off to find a monster.
Seeming to sense his concern, Dapplegrim dashed through the thick snowbanks at an almost reckless speed, though her footfalls were as sure and confident as the fleetest of deer. Thus, it was little more than fifteen minutes when Jasper caught the first signs of life - a small, oddly shaped cabin that squatted in the woods.
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Reining Dapplegrim in, the two came to a halt a hundred feet away and surveyed the area. It wasn’t much of a clearing. Trees seemed to be fused into the very side of the building itself and save for a minuscule patch of open land on the left side of the building, perhaps a garden in fairer weather, the forest continued almost undisturbed, as if the cabin was a natural part of the environment rather than the abode of likely horrific monster.
He spied no sign of movement around the cabin, but something roughly person-shaped lay on the ground outside. Unable to make out any details from this distance, Jasper closed in slowly. The tracks took a circuitous route, and his paranoia increased as the tracks deviated around several bear traps that he was pretty sure he wouldn't have spotted on his own. Keeping a spell ready on the tips of his fingers, he cautiously entered the small clearing.
The smell of burnt meat filled his nostrils as he approached the man-sized lump, and he knew then what he would find. I guess the qas̆pa succumbed to her psychosis. The side facing him was charred and blackened and, not wanting to touch the cooked corpse, he circled to the other side, hoping it wasn’t one of his men. The thick, singed beard was enough to tell him that the body wasn’t Erin’s, but he couldn’t remember if the other soldier had worn a beard or not. Could be the farmer.
Finding nothing else of interest in the clearing, he crept up to the door. Unfortunately, the oddly shaped cabin had no windows through which to peak. Not wanting to rush in blindly to a potential trap, he pressed his ear against the walls, but after several minutes of hearing nothing, he decided he was just going to have to risk it.
With a twist of his fingers, he cast Eternal Night, gathering a shroud of darkness around him, and opened the door a crack. It was dark inside, with nothing but a small fire to light the surprisingly roomy interior of the sculpted cabin, and there, sitting beside the fire was Erin. The poor scout had been stripped naked and blood covered his body from head to toe. A woman stood over him, her back to Jasper, and as her hands moved, Jasper could see the glint of steel flashing in the firelight. The qas̆pa’s going to kill him. Abandoning all pretense of stealth, Jasper pulled his glaive free and charged forward.
“Stop!” Erin shoved the woman to the side just in time to throw himself in front of Jasper. He fell to the floor with a cry of pain as the ropes around his ankles tightened, but he still managed to lift an entreating hand. “She’s helping.”
It was too late for Jasper to fully stop the blow, but he redirected the strike downward, plunging the glaive into the soft dirt a few inches away from Erin’s head. He didn’t let his guard down though, fearing the scout had succumbed to some sort of mental bewitchery from the qas̆pa. “I saw the body outside. I find it kind of hard to believe she's helping you.”
Erin pushed himself up to his knees and clasped a hand to his now bleeding nose. It was far from the only injury he possessed. His left eye was nearly swollen shut from a wound that sliced halfway down his cheek, his wrists were rubbed nearly raw from the ropes that had bound him, and even his chest was marred by bloodied gauges that looked like the work of a wild animal.
“And that's not even touching the state you're in, dude,” Jasper continued.
The scout started to shake his head, only to wince. “That’s not the witch. It’s just the farmer’s wife - you know, the mother of the child we found? That,” he said pointing over Jasper’s shoulder, “is the witch.”
Fearing the witch had snuck up on them, Jasper was already reaching for his spell as he spun around, but his hands fell still as he saw what Erin was pointing to. The walls of the cabin bulged out unnaturally in a frozen wave of wood, out of which stuck the arms and head of a gorgeous woman. “That’s the qas̆pa-" he started to ask skeptically, but Jasper paused as he noticed the sharp claws curling from the tips of her fingers. Well I guess that explains the wounds on his chest. His eyes slid down, and he noticed a second face trapped beneath the wood, one that looked vaguely familiar. Is that the soldier?
A hundred questions buzzed through his mind, but Jasper decided they could wait. Turning back to Erin, he knelt beside him and sliced through the ropes around his ankles with a single stroke from his glaive. “Looks like you had quite the adventure.”
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After freeing Erin of his bonds, a healing potion was enough to take care of the worst of his wounds, although the scar that ran down the left side of his face was unlikely to heal without the aid of a mage. Unfortunately, though, there was no bath to cleanse him of the dried blood and grime caked to his flesh and, while they were able to retrieve his sword and bow, his armor had been torn to shreds. Since trouncing around the winter wonderland naked wasn’t exactly an option, Jasper was forced to share one of his own tunics with the scout.
The task that followed was less savory. Not wanting to leave the two innocent dead to a dishonorable fate, Jasper pried the soldier out of the wooden walls while Erin gathered the fallen farmer, and the two bodies were tied to Dapplegrim’s back. Then the three set off in search of the patrol.
It was already late in the day when they reached the road again, and Jasper began to fret about the time, remembering he had promised to accompany Gūla to the party. Fortunately, the captain had not left with him. Jasper hastily delivered the two bodies and the woman to the patrol, and turned to Erin. "Do you want me to take you back to camp? There's room on Dapplegrim's back."
"I think I'll stay," the scout replied after a moment's hesitation. "I promised that mother I'd take her to her kid and, well, it's the only good thing to come out of this day."
Jasper nodded in understanding. "If you need to talk about what happened with the soldier..." He trailed off as Erin visibly winced.
"You saw that?"
"I did, but it doesn't mean it's your fault."
The scout looked away. "That may be true, but it's not not my fault."
"Like I said, if you need to talk," Jasper offered again. The scout ignored him this time, turning to tend to the rescued villager, and Jasper realized he could delay his return to the camp no longer - he had a date to keep after all. With final adieus, he hopped on Dapplegrim's back and the two sped off into the woods. The sun hung low above the distant mountain peaks as he reached his tent and an already disgruntled visitor awaited him. “You’re late. Where have you been?”